Ready! Set! Throw!

I am fully aware that my opinion is biased, but this child is darling!

Swimming

I'm not swimming, well not right now anyway, but there are little items of "do this", "do that" swimming all around my head. It's making me a little dizzy.

What just started out as "checking into it" is very quickly becoming "really want to do it." It's not easy, but as Jason reminded me, if it were easy every would do it. I'm starting a business. There. I said it. I'm going to be owner and CEO, manufacturer, and janitor of my very own company. There's still a lot to do. But there's a lot that's been done too. I have a federal ID number. I've researched my competition. I've looked into wholesale fabric. I have a logo!

There are big things. There are small things. I really need to put it all on one big "To Do" List but I think I'm kind of afraid of what it will all look like written down. As the items swim by in my head, one at a time, or sometimes a few together, the (many, many, many) tasks I still have to complete seem a teensy tiny bit less daunting.

Here we go ...

Waiting for lightning to strike twice

After that miraculous night of sleep last week, things are back to "normal" around here.

Sierra went to sleep pretty easily tonight, around 8:00. Jason and I started watching a movie and not quite two hours later, just as we were reaching the exciting "whats-gonna-happen" climax of the film, baby girl started crying.

"Should I pause it?" Jason asked.

"Give it a sec ... "

We waited, but the crying did not subside and the baby did not settle.

Sigh. At least she went back to sleep pretty easily. It's a work in progress. But really, why is the default for me to go and settle the baby back down? Okay, yes, I know the answer to that question. It's so much easier for me. Mama's girl and all that. Sometimes it better just not to fight it. Especially when you really want to know what happens next.

Lacrosse camp widow

Jason is working at Woodberry's lacrosse camp. It's only 3 and 1/2 days, but we are 3 days in and he has been very scarce. Which is fine, I can handle it, but I am so thankful that I am not a single parent. Especially with a rather high maintenance child. I don't know how anyone can do that with no help at all. You can't. There's just no way. I'll be glad to have him back tomorrow evening. For one week. Then he leaves for 5 days to a conference. Boo.

Lacross camp started Thursday and for the past three days, Jason has been gone before 8 and not returned until nearly 9pm. Or later. Like now, for instance, it's 9:04 and I have not yet seen him. Thankfully, though, the aforementioned high maintence child is asleep. In her bed (ha!). For now, anyway. One never knows how long this will last. I'd better type faster.

J worked lacrosse camp last year, but his parents were here at the time, so I didn't really notice him being gone as much. I had grandma and grandpa to help and an entire house to worry about unpacking. This year, though, it's just me and the little one, who, rather than taking a nap, likes to fight and cry until I finally nurse her and she falls asleep so I can ease her into her crib where she wakes up in hysterics 30 minutes later jumping up and down and wailing. Oh, no, wait. That was just today. The past two days she's been fine. Great, even. But she is busy. Very, very busy. So I have my hands full. But I guess Jason does too. He spends his days doing this: and this:
and this:

We do get to see him at lunch and dinner, though. Which is way better than it would be if he were still working biotech. Wow, am I glad he left that industry with its 12 hour shift and (in our case) long commute before Sierra was born. I guess I never realized how much he was really gone working biotech because I was so busy myself. Phew. I can't even imagine. Let's think about this. If Jason were still working in that industry ... He leaves Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning before 7, doesn't get home until 8pm. He misses the time Sierra is awake entirely. Monday and Tuesday he's off, so he actually gets to spend some time with us, Wednesday morning too, but then he goes to sleep in the afternoon so he can go in Wednesday night to work 12 hours overnight. He does, sleeps most of Thursday, we see him before he goes in for another night shift, then he sleep most of Friday, we've got the weekend, and he's gone again before Sierra wakes up on Monday. Wow. That would suck. Big time.

Boarding school life is busy, and it's certainly a time commitment when school is in session, but when I think about what it could have been like, well, I'm glad we made the move that we did.

It's 9:22 and Jason is still not back. But Sierra hasn't woken up either.

... there he is!

A thorny issue

This morning, I headed over to my friend Marcia's blackberry patch. She's in North Carolina this summer and said I was welcome to whatever came out of her garden.

Actually, she said I could use a part of her garden to plant my own plants, which I did, but I have officially thrown in the towel on my garden this year. I started out with the intent to plant some veggies for us to eat. You really just can't beat fresh from the garden veggies. As it turns out, I was actually planting a buffet line for the bunnies. That's right, a Bunny Buffet. There are a few scraggly tomato plants hanging on for dear life, and the squashes have some flowers, so we'll see what materializes there, but the peppers and egg plants have been decimated. Sad.

But I digress ...

We were talking about blackberries. I gingerly picked my way through the blackberry bushes hoping to minimize the number of scratches that I would inevitably get. Carefully, carefully, I stepped through the plants. It was several minutes before I realized I had not yet felt that tell tale pain that the defense mechanism of the blackberry bush had been effective. Puzzled, I examined a branch more closely. I guess I knew they existed, but all the blackberries I've picked in my life have been from wild bushes. These had no thorns! Hooray! Trust me when I say I don't need the extra help getting scratched up. I'm accident prone as it is.

Here's the booty: Freshly rinsed, and ready to eat.

Shhh! Can you hear that?

Listen!

Do you hear it?

No?

.
.
.

How about now?

Still no?

.
.
.

It's the sound of magic fairy dust falling from above! You didn't know what that sounded like? It sounds like this:

--
--
--

Nothing?

...

Exactly! Seriously, slap me sill and call me Shirley!

Last night, I put Sierra down in her own bed at 8:25. We didn't hear a peep from her until 4:10am!! For those of you not good at math, that's 7 hours and 45 minutes. Let me just say that again. Sierra slept for 7 hours and 45 minutes! SEVEN HOURS AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTES!!! Can I get an AMEN?!

If you've been paying attention to other posts about Sierra's sleep patterns, you can understand how this seems miraculous. Honestly, I didn't know when we would ever see this day. I hope I can see another one like it very soon.

Do you know what sound I hear now?

This one:

Collage + Brush - Lesson 13

This was the last project in my Jessica Sprague class before the final self-check on day 14. I've been busy, so it's taken me a few days to post. The project was set up as a 8 x 8 grid of 9 photos, but I modified it into an 11x14 with 12 photos -- one for each month of Sierra's first month of life! It's mine intent to have it printed out to hang on the wall.
And just for fun (and because one is NEVER enough): the 9 photo collage: HATS!

New layout

I figued it was well past the time when my blog layout should be spring daffodils. The daffodils have been gone for months. This is more appropriate, I think. And current. Because I took these pictures this morning. Do you like it?

Also, I like the look of the photo in the header, softened thanks to a tip learned in my photo editing class. And speaking of my class, my last lesson is finished and ready to post. I had intended to do it today, but I got caught up doing market research (I guess that's what you'd call it) and now I'm going to bed. Not because I'm tired but because Sierra will be awake at 6am and I do need to get a little sleep. So ... check back tomorrow for a photo grid (or two!).

Good night.

Storyboards - Lesson 12

These look awesome when they're finished! Jessica Sprague says that they are one of the most popular professional techniques for framing up a set of photos. And, now that I've read that, I do remember these being offered as a package the couple times I've had Sierra's photos taken professionally.

Aren't they pretty? And how awesome would this look in a frame?

Selective/Spot Recoloring - Lesson 11

Jason looked at me like I had completely lost my mind when I read what this lesson was going to be. I can't say as I blame him. I yelled out loud and clapped my hands. By myself. At my computer. That's crazy. But really, I think this is such a cool effect and I was so happy that I was going to get to learn it. And I did. And it's awesome! Thank you, Jessica Sprague!

Some of you have seen this photo before because I posted it on Facebook, but I just love it. The sheer joy on Sierra's face as she splashes in the water makes me smile every time. Flashback! A little Sierra in a hat her Auntie Chris made her (and eating a plant ... mmmm).
My niece, Harmony, with her horse in a sling. Fun!
Our friend at the pool in her super-fun rainbow goggles!

I couldn't help myself. I was having so much fun with this that I did extra credit. And there are so many more that I could do. Oh, I just LOVE this!

A couple people have asked where this class can be found because they didn't see it on Jessica Sprague's website. Unfortunately, it is not an ongoing class. It's instructor led and I had to sign up in advance. Every day Jessica sends an email and posts instructions for the day's lesson on her website. Since I registered for the class, I have access to those materials when I log on to her site. But email her. Tell her you're interested when she offers the class again. I imagine she has a mailing list.

Project start-to-finish - Lesson 10

This lesson was a little bit of many of the techniques we've learned so far, including making our own clipping mask. A clipping mask is just a shape to which you conform your photo. It can be anything, but in this case, it's simply a rounded triangle. Jessica Sprague says this about this lesson, "I'll show you how to create your own clipping mask from a shape, then add in your photo, two textures, a type overlay, some type in two fonts, and then we'll finish it off with our edge burning technique."

This photo was taken on Stoney Man Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. It's one of my favorites.

She ... was ... running ...

I just can't hold this child back. Yesterday, she actually ran. Like, fast. Granted, it was only a few steps, and she promptly fell on her face, but still ... Just when I think I've caught up with her, she's off to doing something else. And speaking of movement, Sierra seems to be officially a toddler now. And by that I mean that her primary mode of locomotion is walking rather than crawling. There are still quite a few falls, but she's starting to look like she knows what she's doing and less like someone who's had one too many shots of tequila.

Edge Burn - Lesson 9

What a cool effect! I LOVE this Jessica Sprague class. Every day I learn something new that Photoshop can do. There are so many ways to play with your photos with this program. I'm finally getting my money's worth for the program, I think. Before I signed up for this class, Photoshop was the "layered" (that was a bad pun) onion I hadn't cut into yet. I used it to crop and resize, sometimes change a photo to black and white, I played a little bit with touching up blemishes and removing red eye, but that was it.

This is from Jessica's intro to today's lesson: "Today we'll be talking about a technique borrowed from the traditional darkroom: edge burning. In the dark room, the photographer would additionally expose only the edges of a photo, while leaving the center of the photo properly exposed. Cool news: we can replicate this look in Photoshop, and the darkened edges pull our viewer's eye subtly toward the center of our photo."

This first photo was taken by Jason at the beginning of our hike to Mt. LeConte on the Alum Cave Bluffs trail. It was a gorgeous morning and I love how the edge burn effect really highlights the light shining through the trees.
This second photo is an example of the edge burn on a black and white photo. This is Sierra being a botanist in the yard. I love how it turned out!

Type - Lesson 8

Lesson 7 marked the end of the first week of my Photoshop class with Jessica Sprague, and also the half-way point of the class. It was a self-check/assesment, so no photo to display from yesterday.

Today, though, the lesson was about adding type to photos. I had no idea there were so many different fonts out there in addition to those that are already on your computer. I downloaded a bunch of free fonts from dafont.com. If you do this, and you are using Windows XP (like I am), after you download and unzip the font, you have to go to control panel -> fonts -> install font. Vista you just right click the font and select install.

A photoshop class is fun for me in part because I have such an adorable subject to work with in many of my photos: Sierra. These have a textured overlay in addition to the font.

How to flip a car on the highway: Jason's account of the accident

I mentioned the panic I felt when a stranger called to tell me Jason had been in an accident and flipped the SUV. Here's how it looked from Jason's perspective:

Em has asked me to blog about my car accident on 7-11-09. So gather round folks for I shall tell you the tale of Cassie’s (our car’s name) great demise.

The sky was angry that day my friends. Like an old man yelling at the neighborhood kids to stay off his lawn. I was taking my trusty vehicle north on highway 15 after just leaving the supermarket. A fresh loaf a bread and a bottle of red zinfandel ride shotgun with me in our quest to get home for Em’s lasagna. The storm had begun with a light amount of rain and was steadily increasing in strength. Up and down the hillside I drive, wipers going full speed. A flash of lightning illuminates the dark sky and the sky opens up with a heavy barrage of rain. I glance down at my speedometer as I crest a hill. It reads 55 mph; the speed limit. A river of water accompanies Cassie and me down the hill on the shoulder. I think to myself, “I should slow down”.

Too late.

Cassie hits the stream and the front tires lose contact with the road and drift to the left. I’m hydroplaning. I see a vehicle 200 yards away coming at me. I drift into the oncoming traffic lane. I try to correct the wheel. No response. I brake, but it only seems to be getting worse. I’m starting to go sideways. I release the brake and get the tires straightened out, but now I’m veering off the road at high speed. I leave the oncoming traffic lane into an open field and brake hard. I’m going way too fast. Brace for impact. Keeping the car pointing straight, I hit a ditch HARD. The car stops and a gunshot goes off. The airbags have deployed. Too much force, mass, and rapid deceleration. I feel myself go horizontal as the back end of the car continues to carry our momentum forward, flipping the car. Crunching metal and the wind is knocked out of my chest. The seatbelt holds. I’m staring at the ground through my windshield.

I’d like to tell you I was afraid as these events were unfolding. The truth is there was no time for fear. The whole event happened in about three to four seconds. Now the only thing on my mind was survival as the adrenaline rushed through me. I suddenly feel no pain.

Panic brain: “Get out!”

Rational brain: “Undo the seatbelt.” I quickly undo the seatbelt and fall to the roof. There is a white cloud in the car.

Panic brain: “Smoke! Fire! Get out!”

Rational brain: “It’s sodium azide.” The white powder is a chemical compound used to rapidly inflate the airbag. The airbags have now deflated and the powder is loose in the air. (Aside, from Em: Chemistry nerd!)

Panic brain: “Get out!”

Rational brain: “Assess your injuries.” I feel no pain, but it could be the adrenaline. I move all my joints. Nothing is pinned down. There is some bleeding on my wrist but I can tell they are superficial cuts. My nose and upper lip hurt. I touch it, and blood is found on my fingers. I remember I hit the airbag so worst case my nose is broken or my lip is busted or both. Okay, now it’s time to look for an escape. The windshield is mostly flattened on the ground but it is intact. No exit there. The driver and passenger windows are intact. Same with the rear seat windows. No escape there. I try to open the driver side door. It budges but it is mostly jammed. No surprise there. I grab my phone. Remarkably it was in my front pocket and didn’t get ejected during the accident. No signal. Damn you Verizon and the rural country side. I remember a conversation with a car dealer about how having On star installed in my car could save me in an accident. Damn irony. I resign myself to await rescue and the Jaws of Life.

Suddenly a voice asks if I’m okay. “Yes. I’m okay but I can’t get out”. The man tells me they’ve called rescue. “Can you get out the back?” the man asks. Only one side of the carpet in the back is attached so most of it was hanging from the base of the car (which is now the roof) like a curtain and was blocking my view of back window. I push it aside to reveal a blown out back window. “Yeah I can get out.” With some crawling and the help of many hands I am able to get out of the vehicle and sit in a large puddle in the middle of driving rain. There are two couples and one lady who have pulled over to see if I was alright. I briefly wonder if this generosity would be displayed in New England. I get my first look at Cassie after the accident. I visually confirm what I already knew to be true ... she’s dead. A brunette woman anxiously asks me if there is anyone else in the vehicle. “No”, I reply. Another woman identifies herself as Laura and she is a certified nurse’s aide. She asks if it is okay to treat me. Feeling pretty fortunate, I allow it.

Laura refuses to let me stand up and eventually gets me to lie down. She braces my head and asks me simple questions to see if I concussed myself or broke anything. A gentleman comes over and asks if anyone was in the car with me. “No”, I reply. Laura starts poking around my body asking if I feel pain. “No” is always the reply. I seem to have come out of this remarkably well. The brunette woman comes over to me again and asks if there is anyone in the vehicle with me. “No” I reply a second time to her. I then over hear her mention she saw the whole thing happen. She’s frantically speaking. Sounds like she is having a panic attack. The gentleman comes over again and asks me if he can contact my wife. I hesitate. On the one hand, Em should definitely know what happened and that I’m okay. On the other hand I don’t want to worry her and have an upset woman driving a baby around. I give the guy my home number and hear him converse with Em. He tries to let me talk to her but the phone drops the call. Damn rural setting. Laura starts pulling on my hands and feet to see if they are okay. I hear a diesel truck pull up. The EMT rescue squad has arrived. The brunette woman comes over to me again and asks, “Is there anyone else in the vehicle?” She is in shock. In my head I feel like yelling, “get a hold of yourself woman! I’m the one that crashed a vehicle, crawled out, and is lying here in a puddle of water!” Instead, I reply a third time, “No”.

The EMT guys step around me now and begin to ask the same questions Laura has asked me. Working together with me they roll me and check my spine and neck. Nothing hurts, everything is fine. Never the less, the get me on a board and begin to immobilize my back and neck. “This is the fun part, man” an EMT says sarcastically. With that they take a large piece of tape and place it across my forehead, securing my head to the board. Can’t help but notice they didn’t bother to move my hair. I think they enjoy doing this to their victims. I get loaded into the ambulance. It looks nice. Of course, I make that assessment with only looking at the ceiling and a few upper cabinets in my field of vision. The EMTs ask me a few personal info questions and get an IV started. I like them. I was joking with them about my accident the whole time. Before we begin to move, a deputy of the Orange sheriff’s department comes into the ambulance. He asks, “Mister Getz. Do you mind telling me how your car wound up on its roof next to my highway?” I’m tempted to reply with about two dozen different sarcastic remarks. In the end, I tell him what happened. He asks if I was drinking. I said I had a half glass of blackberry wine about an hour ago. I immediately contemplate what I just said and look at the EMT and say, “blackberry wine….that was manly, huh?” Laughter erupts in the truck. The deputy puts on a stern face and warns me if I’m not telling the truth he can legally obtain my blood and have it tested. “Yes sir, that’s the truth.” He leaves without ticketing me. He must have realized that any man admitting to drinking blackberry wine must be telling the truth.

As we arrive at the Culpeper hospital twenty minutes later, the EMT asks if I want to call my wife again. He hands me a phone and I begin to dial, when he asks if I know a brunette woman with a baby driving a red minivan. “That’s my wife” I reply. He calls her over and I think how I should describe how I’m feeling to her. She puts her hand on me and I can hear that she is sobbing with tears of joy. I look at her and say, “Honey, I got bad news about the wine.”

The next six hours in the ER went by slowly. I will spare you all the details. Here are the highlights. I’m okay. I had a chest x-ray and a CT scan of my abdomen. All is normal and healthy. I have a few cuts that are healing and huge bruise in the shape of seatbelt across my chest and abdomen. I met three nurses and a nurse practitioner before I met a fourth nurse who was my actual nurse. Apparently the first three were in charge of doing all the paperwork. There seems something very wrong with that. Then I met a radiologist, an x-ray technician, a doctor, followed by the CT technicians. I’m expecting a large healthcare bill.

Lessons learned.

One: ALWAYS wear your seatbelt. It saved my life.

Two: I’m really thankful for reading consumer reports and getting a recommended car in terms of safety. In addition, SUVs are top heavy and spin out easily. This is the second incident I have had in an SUV but the first that landed me in the ER. I’ll never buy another SUV again.

Three: If you have two cars and you’re uncertain you can’t get by on one make sure you have full coverage on both vehicles. We just bought a new minivan and we fully insured it. So we still have a functional family vehicle. But our SUV was liability only. It’s a total loss and we can’t afford to replace it.

Four: Slow down! All those near misses I have had in the past I guess gave me this idea that an accident won’t happen to me. I’m too good to get in an accident. It can happen to anyone. Drive safe. Thankfully, I can just look back on this and feel stupid but learn something from it.

Okay, Em again. We went out to Randy's auto today, where the Pathfinder had been towed. Yep, it's totalled. Sigh. Funny we had just been throwing around the idea of whether or not we could manage with just one car. Guess we'll find out now.


When the accident happened, Jason was on his way back from the grocery store with wine and bread to go with our lasagna. We found them both in the front seat, still in the bag and completely unscathed.
More photos.

Opposite of the "junk drawer"

You know that drawer in your kitchen full of random stuff? You know ... the "junk drawer"? It's the one with twist ties and pens and receipts and stickers and some notecards and a box of matches and that screw that fell off of something and the alan wrench that came with that dresser you put together yourself. There might be tape and the lid with the free soda you've been meaning to use and a couple hair ties and a button and the beads from that bracelet that fell apart. It's the drawer that you could probably turn upside down over the trash can and never really miss any of it. Why do we have a junk drawer? Why do we need a junk drawer? And what is the opposite of the junk drawer?

Well ... I think I've found the answer to that last one. It's not the silverwear drawer or the dish towel drawer or the drawer with the plastic baggies in it ...

... it's the drawer you keep the baby in!

Oh? You don't have a drawer for your baby?

Hmmm, must just be me.

The fact that we finally had a date yesterday has become a side note

It would have been exciting news: Jason and I got 4 glorious hours without the baby to go off and see Transformers. A movie! In a theater! Did I mention without a baby! It would have been exciting. Then Jason decided to flip the car on it's top. And take an ambulance ride to the hospital. And spend 6 hours in the ER. Oy!

Let me just tell you that it is impossible to describe the feeling you have when a stranger calls and says, "Ma'am? I think I'm calling about your husband. Does he drive a white Pathfinder?" I answered in the affirmative and then the man on the other end of my phone said, "He's been in an accident. The car flipped over on Route 15." Then he finally told me that Jason seemed to be fine. Geez, man! You couldn't have said that first?! I felt my stomach drop and I was quivering as I rushed about to get Sierra and myself ready to head to the emergency room. I'm impressed I had myself together enough to turn off the stove before I left. I called my mom sobbing because at this point I still didn't know how bad Jason was. All I knew is that had hydroplaned during a downpour and the car flipped over.

It shouldn't have happened. It was just a quick trip to town to pick up some bread and wine to go with our lasagna. It wasn't even that important. It only rained for a couple minutes. One of those summer storms that drops a big burst of rain and then it's over. It started pouring and I remember thinking that I hoped Jason was in the store and not caught in the rain.

Sierra and I arrived at the ER just as the EMTs were taking Jason out of the ambulance. He was strapped to a stretcher, his head in a brace. But he was conscious. And then I knew he was okay because the first thing he said to me when I walked over was, "Honey? I've got some bad news about the wine ... "

I hung out in the ER until almost 7 and then J's nurse said it was going to be at least another couple hours. I headed home, fed the animals, made some dinner and came back. Jason was waiting for a CT scan. Everything came back fine. He's sore, has a few scratches and bruises, and a pretty nasty cut/burn from the seat belt, but all things considered, he came out relatively unscathed. I'm so relieved.

TTV and Mega-Challenge - Lesson 6

TTV stands for through the viewfinder. It's a photography technique used to get the look of an old-time camera. Jessica Sprague says this: To get a worn, faded look, photographers will actually take photographs (often using a macro lens and a light blocking device) through the viewfinder of an old camera. The result is a photo with blackened edges, distortion, scuffs and scratches and marks

The "mega-challenge" for today was to download a TTV texture, add it to a photo and then use any combination of other techniques we've learned so far.

For this photo, I used two textures and desaturated my photo before applying the TTV texture.

Textures - Lesson 5

So textures are a pretty cool tool to use on your photos. You can take an image (or more!) of something with texture: paper bag, leather, film, anything! and layer it onto a photo for a cool effect. Jessica Sprague suggests that textures work better with landscapes, flowers, and subjects facing away from the camera than with "traditional" look at the camera and smile poses.

I started with this photo of mountain laurel from a hike in Great Smoky Mountains National Park:
Then layered on three texture images:

And ... Voila!

Lucky 13

Ah ... 13 months old. How cool. I finally got around to scheduling Sierra's one year photos, a month late. But they are done. It was a long day for us, running around Charlottesville Thursday, but I did get a lot done.

At 13 months old, Sierra is very quickly deciding that walking is a pretty good primary mode of transportation. She still does quite a bit of crawling, but the ratio is shifting. She has also figured out how to go under the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs if we don't put it on just right. Because of the shape of our banister, the baby gate can't be flush with the ground. We have to lift it up a little so it can push against the flat part of the banister. Well, if it's literally an inch too high, Sierra can shimmy underneath and head up the stairs. She's busy, this one!

She is also getting more teeth! The two on the bottom have completely come through, one on the top has just a little further to go, and there are 3 others that are starting to peek out. And with teeth, comes biting. Ouch! She bit me on the arm today, which just seemed like a love bite, but she has chomped down when she was nursing, and I'll tell you what, that is not okay.

We've been swimming a few times this month, and we really should go more. There is a pool right here on campus and it's free for us to go there. It's small but there is a sloped beach entrance on one side, which is great for little ones. Sierra will really get into her splashing -- it's great.



And, oh, you should see her dance! Sooo cute! She bends her knees and bounces up and down, and sometimes she throws one arm out in front of her and bounces that up and down too. I should really try and get it on video!

South River Falls Trail, Shenandoah National Park

We almost didn't go on our hike yesterday because it was overcast and we were worried about potential rain. Maybe we got scared by our experience at Grotto Falls last month. But, we decided to head out to Shenandoah and go for it anyway. I'm glad we did.

The cloudy skies must have scared some people away because the trail was remarkably uncrowded for a Friday afternoon in the summer. However, we did see an unprecedented two other people with babies on their backs! I feel a common bond with people who won't give up hiking just because they have a baby. How sad that some people give up doing something they enjoy just because a stroller doesn't go there. There are other options!! We certainly don't let it hold us back; Sierra's first hike in Shenandoah happened just after we moved here when she was only 7 weeks old. (Awww! Look at those teeny tiny little legs sticking out!)

The trail was lovely, really lush and green. The cloudy skies made the wooded trail seem especially dark and peaceful. We wandered down and down, along a stream, and then down some more.


We came to a lookout where we could see the waterfall in the distance.
(Gotta love the self-timer!)

Then we hiked down and down some more. The trail was great at this point, nice and wide, fairly smooth, and well-maintained. We clammered up a little side trail that had these really cool stone steps to reach the base of the falls. South River Falls, at 83 feet, is the third highest in Shenandoah.




The hike out was as lovely as the hike in, but the downside, as you can imagine, is that since the hike in was down and down, the hike back was up and up and UP (so maybe that would make it the upside?).